Lesson 194

I place the future in the Hands of God.

Today’s idea takes another step toward quick salvation, and a giant stride it is indeed! So great the distance is that it encompasses, it sets you down just short of Heaven, with the goal in sight and obstacles behind. Your foot has reached the lawns that welcome you to Heaven’s gate; the quiet place of peace, where you await with certainty the final step of God. How far are we progressing now from earth! How close are we approaching to our goal! How short the journey still to be pursued!

Accept today’s idea, and you have passed all anxiety, all pits of hell, all blackness of depression, thoughts of sin, and devastation brought about by guilt. Accept today’s idea, and you have released the world from all imprisonment by loosening the heavy chains that locked the door to freedom on it. You are saved, and your salvation thus becomes the gift you give the world, because you have received.

In no one instant is depression felt, or pain experienced or loss perceived. In no one instant sorrow can be set upon a throne, and worshipped faithfully. In no one instant can one even die. And so each instant given unto God in passing, with the next one given Him already, is a time of your release from sadness, pain and even death itself.

God holds your future as He holds your past and present. They are one to Him, and so they should be one to you. Yet in this world, the temporal progression still seems real. And so you are not asked to understand the lack of sequence really found in time. You are but asked to let the future go, and place it in God’s Hands. And you will see by your experience that you have laid the past and present in His Hands as well, because the past will punish you no more, and future dread will now be meaningless.

Release the future. For the past is gone, and what is present, freed from its bequest of grief and misery, of pain and loss, becomes the instant in which time escapes the bondage of illusions where it runs its pitiless, inevitable course. Then is each instant which was slave to time transformed into a holy instant, when the light that was kept hidden in God’s Son is freed to bless the world. Now is he free, and all his glory shines upon a world made free with him, to share his holiness.

If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is, you will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can, to make it be a part of you. As it becomes a thought that rules your mind, a habit in your problem-solving repertoire, a way of quick reaction to temptation, you extend your learning to the world. And as you learn to see salvation in all things, so will the world perceive that it is saved.

What worry can beset the one who gives his future to the loving Hands of God? What can he suffer? What can cause him pain, or bring experience of loss to him? What can he fear? And what can he regard except with love? For he who has escaped all fear of future pain has found his way to present peace, and certainty of care the world can never threaten. He is sure that his perception may be faulty, but will never lack correction. He is free to choose again when he has been deceived; to change his mind when he has made mistakes.

Place, then, your future in the Hands of God. For thus you call the memory of Him to come again, replacing all your thoughts of sin and evil with the truth of love. Think you the world could fail to gain thereby, and every living creature not respond with healed perception? Who entrusts himself to God has also placed the world within the Hands to which he has himself appealed for comfort and security. He lays aside the sick illusions of the world along with his, and offers peace to both.

Now are we saved indeed. For in God’s Hands we rest untroubled, sure that only good can come to us. If we forget, we will be gently reassured. If we accept an unforgiving thought, it will be soon replaced by love’s reflection. And if we are tempted to attack, we will appeal to Him Who guards our rest to make the choice for us that leaves temptation far behind. No longer is the world our enemy, for we have chosen that we be its friend.

INITIAL INSIGHT: I was listening to the Course this morning as I woke up and I heard Jesus say this: You do not need to understand, only to want to understand. I was about to take this lesson apart in an attempt to understand each sentence. But I am not going to do that. I am not going to struggle to understand with my ego-mind.

I accept that God wants me to be happy and at peace and He wants me to remember Him. And I accept that placing the future in His hands will allow Him to do that for me. I accept that giving Him my future takes care of the past as well, so I will not be dragging it behind me on the way to the gates of Heaven. I accept it even though I have no memory of timelessness.

DAILY APPLICATION: There has never been a better time for the practice of this lesson. It seems that every time we turn around, there is something else we could worry about and try vainly to control. Or we can put the future in the hands of God and live in the only moment that exists. I tried both ways today. Right now in Louisiana, and especially in the town where I live, the virus has gotten much worse and the ICU units at the hospitals are nearly full to capacity. I had to go to the store, and I noticed that many people were not wearing masks and it was crowded.

I wondered if I should even be there and yet, I needed to be there. I felt contracted around the whole thing, confused as to what to do, and unable to control the situation however much I wanted to. I realized that the only problem I had was the thought that something might happen in the future. I might get sick. I might need one of those ICU rooms that might not be available.

But none of that was happening while I was shopping. It was only happening in my mind so feeling anxious was something I was doing to myself as I believed my thoughts. And, none of it was relevant to the moment I was living, only to a non-existent future. As I let it all go into God’s Hands, I relaxed into the day and got done what needed doing without the stress of worry. This is the way I practice this lesson and this is how it takes me from anxiety to peace. I’m sure that I was no longer putting out a stay-away or judgmental vibe as I moved through my fellow shoppers.

INSIGHTS FROM HOLY SPIRIT: It is never the situation or person that causes me to suffer, but my thoughts about them cause me pain. My trust in God will correct my perceptions so that I will understand that everything is in our best interests even when it is not apparent how this could be. It is never the situation or person that causes me to suffer, but my thoughts about them cause me pain. My trust in God will correct my perceptions so that I will understand that everything is in my best interests even when it is not apparent how this could be.

GRATITUDE: Thank you, Holy Spirit for clarity.

REGINA’S TIPS

Reading A Course in Miracles and repeating the day’s lesson to yourself hourly is not the path to freedom. Putting the teachings into practice is the path to freedom.

Today we are given another practice to add to our very useful repertoire.

I place the future in the Hands of God.

This isn’t something that we say to ourselves. This is something that we do.

Today’s lesson says, “Today’s idea takes another step toward quick salvation, and a giant stride it is indeed! … If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is, you will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can, to make it be a part of you.”

“I place the future in the Hands of God,” means ‘I do not know what is in my best interest or in the best interest of others, and so I let go of worry and control, and I trust the unfolding as it is.’

Again, this is not something that we say. This is something that we do. We need to actually let go of worry and control, and trust the unfolding as it is. The way to do this is right-reason, through realizing that we do not know what is in the best interest of others and ourselves.

Thinking we know what is best and thinking we are right is the problem. With a little bit of right-reason, we can see that we are wrong about both of those assumptions.

As of this writing, there are more than 7,400,000,000 people in the world, each with a unique point of view. How can any one point-of-view out of 7,400,000,000 points-of-view be right and know what is in the best interest of everyone?

You might agree that you can’t know what is in the best interest of everyone, but still feel that you know what is in your own best interest.

Is that true? Have you ever been wrong about that?

I remember when I was 17 years old. I met this sweet boy who I thought was the love of my life. His name was Scott. Scott and I were separated when his mother sent him to another state to live with his older brother. At the time, I thought she ruined my life. We loved each other so much!!

A few years ago, I became reacquainted with Scott through Facebook. We are so different from one another now that I felt grateful our lives went separate ways when they did, although I couldn’t see that at all at the time.

I’m sure you’ve had those types of experiences too.

If we become really honest with ourselves through right-reason, we see that we don’t know what is in our best interest or in the best interest of others. With this genuine realization, we can let go of worry and control, and simply trust the unfolding as it is.

I place the future in the Hands of God.

“As it becomes a thought that rules your mind, a habit in your problem-solving repertoire, a way of quick reaction to temptation, you extend your learning to the world.”

The lesson says, “Who entrusts himself to God has also placed the world within the Hands to which he has himself appealed for comfort and security.”

Pause and contemplate that for a moment. Doesn’t it make more sense to entrust the world to the Hands of God than it does to try and take control ourselves?

“For in God’s Hands we rest untroubled, sure that only good can come to us.”

Here’s a fun song that will help us remember that we are wisest when we trust the unfolding as it is:

MY THOUGHTS

I don’t need to be convinced that I don’t know what is in my best interest or anyone’s best interest. I know this is true and yet there are times when I fall into making plans on my own and deciding on my own what to do as if I could know my own best interests. And there are times when I think my children should live a certain way according to my choices and not theirs. When these senseless thoughts come into my mind, I release them and place the future in the Hands of God because I want happiness and salvation for us all.